Horati
Horatio
Horatio
Horatio Hora
Horatio
Sabine Audige
Christopher Troupis
Horatio
Horatio is referred to as “Hamlet’s friend” in the list of
characters, and throughout the play his exact rank and
place at court remain a mystery.
In Act I Scene I Horatio is told, “Thou art a scholar,
speak to it [the Ghost] Horatio,” which informs the
audience of his upbringing. This is enhanced by his use
of iambic pentameter, which contrasts with the
soldiers’ more blunt method of speaking.
He is only Hamlet’s friend, but Horatio is the only
friend who remains loyal to Hamlet throughout the
entire play.
Horatio threatens to commit suicide but is deterred by
Hamlet. This wish suggests Horatio is devoted to
Hamlet and wishes to follow him in death, or that he is
distraught by all the destruction around him. Either
way this is evidence of Horatio’s humanity and
compassion.
SCENE
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#1
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Act I, Scene I
Lines 112 - 139
Act I, Scene I
Plot:
Horatio tells of the doom that
occurred with the death of Julius
Caesar. His spiel foreshadows the
imminent disaster in Castle
Elsinore. The ghost appears,
Horatio orders it to speak multiple
times, but when the rooster crows
it disappears.
Characterisation:
The omens that Horatio mentions
in his story, imply that Horatio
may be superstitious.
When the ghost appears, Horatio
does not run or cower, but orders
the ghost to speak to him
(fruitlessly). He also orders
Marcellus to stop the ghost from
leaving. This may imply Horatio’s
expectance to be obeyed, a sign of
his high rank.
HORATIO
A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.—
Enter GHOST
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
It spreads his arms
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me.
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me.
Structure:
Only Horatio speaks in this passage,
although it is broken up by various
stage directions for the ghost.
Horatio’s forewarnings act as a
prologue to the main act of seeing the
ghost.
The extract was set at night, although
it ends with the ghost’s disappearance
at dawn. The night setting is essential
to setting an atmosphere appropriate
for the appearance of the ghost.
Literary Techniques:
Much repetition is used, when Horatio
orders the ghost to speak. As he asks
the ghost to speak in excess of five
times, this helps to heighten the
tension of the ghost’s immobility.
Horatio speaks in unrhyming blank
verse
Metaphors are used to emphasise the
disasters that befell the world upon the
death of Julius Caesar.
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak.
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
The cock crows
Speak of it. Stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
SCENE
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#2
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Act I, Scene II
Lines 192 - 220
Act I, Scene II
HORATIO
Plot:
After agreeing to stay in
Denmark, Hamlet discusses his
mother’s hasty marriage in a
soliloquy. Horatio arrives to tell
Hamlet about the ghost.
Characterisation:
Horatio proves his loyalty to his
friend, Hamlet, when he tells
him of the ghost of Old King
Hamlet. Even though Horatio
and the Guards are shocked, he
thinks Hamlet will want to hear
the news.
Horatio speaks in an
aristocratic manner, and does
not just blurt out the existence
of the ghost, but leads up to it
in detail. This is consistent with
Horatio upbringing, he his
referred to as a “scholar”.
HAMLET
HORATIO
Season your admiration for awhile
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
For God's love, let me hear.
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.
HAMLET
Structure:
This passage uses iambic
pentameter, in unrhyming blank
verse. Horatio generally speaks in
iambic pentameter throughout the
play, due to his upbringing.
The passage essentially recounts
the events on the gun platform
from the past three nights,
culminating in the divulgence of
the ghost.
Literary Techniques:
This extract makes use of many
metaphors, including ‘almost to
jelly,’ and ‘stand dumb.’ These
techniques emphasise the fear
instilled in Horatio and the
guardsmen by the ghost,
foreshadowing the dark events to
come.
But where was this?
MARCELLUS
My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
HAMLET
Did you not speak to it?
HORATIO
My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its head and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.
HAMLET
‘Tis very strange.
SCENE
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#3
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Act V, Scene II
Lines 341 - 382
Act V, Scene II
Plot:
The fight between Hamlet
and Laertes leads to the
death of Gertrude from the
poison offered by Claudius.
Laertes forgives Hamlet
and Hamlet gets his
revenge on Claudius, then
dies from Laertes’ poisoned
sword. Fortinbras arrives
at the court where only
Horatio is left alive.
FORTINBRAS
Where is this sight?
HORATIO
What is it ye would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
FORTINBRAS
This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck?
First Ambassador
The sight is dismal;
And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?
HORATIO
Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you:
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arrived give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
Characterisation:
This scene is one of Horatio’s
most important scenes in the
play, as although Hamlet has
just died (after stopping him
from committing suicide),
Horatio still wishes to protect
his good name. When the
Ambassador asks who the
cause was of the deaths,
Horatio is sure to tell him it was
not Hamlet.
Horatio also asks for the bodies
to be put on display, and to be
able to address the populace
and tell them what happened
in Castle Elsinore. Horatio
wishes for the truth to be
known, and for his friend to be
praised.
Horatio also supports
Fortinbras’ claim to the throne
of Denmark, as per Hamlet’s
dying wish.
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
Truly deliver.
FORTINBRAS
Let us haste to hear it,
And call the noblest to the audience.
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune:
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
HORATIO
Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance
On plots and errors, happen.
Structure:
This passage is a dialogue
mostly between Horatio
and Fortinbras, but with an
appearance by the English
Ambassador.
The passage is mostly
spoken in iambic
pentameter, and both
Fortinbras and Horatio
mourn for the dead.
Literary Techniques:
Horatio uses simile to
honour the memory of
Hamlet (‘like a soldier’). For
the most part, Horatio
speaks in iambic
pentameter, although
there are some instances
where he does not use the
required number of
syllables.
FORTINBRAS
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.
Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
A dead march.
Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which
a peal of ordnance is shot off
Tak